016 090 246 2 



F 589 

. R2 38 
Copy 1 



MARSHALL MASON STRONG, 
RACINE PIONEER 



BY 



EUGENE WALTER LEACH 




Reprinted from the Wisconsin Magazine of History 
Volume V, Number 4, June, 1922 



I* 



Zlf 



K 




MARSHALL MASON STRONG 



MARSHALL MASON STRONG, RACINE PIONEER 

Eugene Walter Leach 

In presenting this sketch of Marshall M. Strong, it seems 
proper to state, by way of prelude, that I was but a lad 
when Mr. Strong died, in 1864, and do not remember ever 
to have seen him. I have talked, however, with many 
discerning people who knew him well, all of whom have 
spoken of him in terms of unqualified praise and almost 
reverential respect and regard. In city and county and 
court records I have encountered his name and his work 
repeatedly. In every authentic history of Racine County 
and of the state of Wisconsin he is given a definite place 
in the beginnings of things. What I have learned of Mr. 
Strong has awakened in me an ardent admiration for him, 
and a conviction that the people of this generation in his 
home city and state should know something of the life and 
work of one of the real founders of this commonwealth 
of ours — a man who was fitted for the task, and who 
left the impress of his genius and high character on its 
political, educational, professional, and civic institutions, 
and an example of probity in his public and private life well 
worthy of emulation. 

Marshall Mason Strong was a prominent figure in that 
notable group of sterling men and women who migrated 
from New England and New York to southeastern Wiscon- 
sin in the decade beginning with 1834. They were people 
with a background of inheritance and training that fitted 
them for pioneer work — for foundation laying — and they 
gave the communities where they settled a tone and charac- 
ter that have survived the lapse of three-fourths of a cen- 
tury of time, and the influence of that other flood of alien 
peoples that has poured into the same section in the last 
sixty years. 



4 Eugene Walter Leach 

Mr. Strong was exceptionally well equipped for the task 
that confronted those pioneers. The founder of the Strong 
family in this country — Elder John Strong — came from 
England to Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1630, and with 
one exception the succeeding five generations, leading in line 
to the subject of this sketch, continued to live in that 
state, the exception being the father of our subject, Hezekiah 
Wright Strong, a lawyer of marked distinction, who moved 
to Troy, New York, in 1832, where he died October 7, 1848, 
aged seventy-nine. His paternal grandfather, Simeon 
Strong, a graduate of Yale College, attained eminence both 
as a preacher and as a lawyer; he was a justice of the supreme 
court of Massachusetts from 1800 until his death on Decem- 
ber 14, 1805, aged sixty-nine. 

It will be worth while to note here that Elder John 
Strong was the paternal ancestor also of Moses M. Strong, 
another pioneer lawyer of Wisconsin who achieved emi- 
nence. Being a contemporary with a similar name, he has 
sometimes been confused with Marshall M. Strong, though 
he was not a near relative. He came to Wisconsin in 1836 
from Vermont, representing capitalists interested in the 
lead mines, and settled at Mineral Point, where he con- 
tinued to reside, except for a brief interval when he lived 
in Milwaukee, until his death July 20, 1894. 

Mr. Strong was born at Amherst, Massachusetts, 
September 3, 1813. I have made considerable effort to learn 
something of his childhood and youth, but with little 
success. It is now more than ninety-five years since he 
celebrated his thirteenth birthday, and there are none living 
now who knew him then; while no written account of his 
early life has been found, further than the bare record of his 
years in college. His collegiate education was begun at 
Amherst, where he spent two years, from 1830 to 1832. In 
September of the latter year he entered Union College, 
Schenectady, New York, his father having removed from 



Marshall Mason Strong, Racine Pioneer 5 

Amherst to Troy, New York during that year. He did not 
graduate from Union, however, and there is no record of 
the time he left there. He subsequently engaged in the 
study of law at Troy, where he was admitted to the bar. 
He must have come West very soon thereafter, for on June 2, 
183(5, before he was twenty -three years old, he arrived at 
Racine — then called Root River — by the Great Lakes route, 
on the steamboat Pennsylvania. From this day forth to 
the day of his death he was closely and continuously identi- 
fied with the interests of the community and common- 
wealth which he had chosen as the field of his life work. 

Although Gilbert Knapp, the founder of Racine, staked 
out his claim comprising the original plat of the city in 
November, 1834, settlement did not begin thereon until 
the spring of 1835. During this year half a dozen frame 
buildings and a few log houses were erected. The arrivals 
during the spring of 1836 did not add greatly to the popula- 
tion of the village, and it was therefore an undeveloped, 
pioneer settlement to which young Strong came, and to 
whose fortunes he joined his own on that June day in the 
second year of Racine's history. There was nothing that 
invited to ease or pleasure in the immediate prospect, 
and only the man with vision and a will to work — only the 
true pioneer — could be attracted by what it held in prospect. 

Mr. Strong was the first lawyer who settled in Racine 
County, and there were few in the state who preceded him. 
Soon after his arrival he formed a partnership with Stephen 
N. Ives, and a general store was opened under the name of 
Strong and Ives, from which it may be inferred that there 
was little or no demand for the services of a lawyer at that 
stage of the settlement's growth. Charles E. Dyer, in his 
historical address, states that Judge Frazer, territorial jus- 
tice, was the first judge who presided in April, 1837 over a 
court of record in Racine County, and that only eight days 
were occupied by the court in the three terms held there in 
the first eighteen months of its existence. 



6 Eugene Walter Leach 

In the absence of positive record it seems probable that 
Mr. Strong continued as senior partner of the village store 
until the increasing demands of his profession required all 
of his time. This change must have come about com- 
paratively early, for the troubled years from 1837 to 1839 
brought many disputes between the settlers over the boun- 
daries of their respective claims. It is a matter of record 
that Strong's legal ability was often invoked in the composi- 
tion of these disputes. In June, 1837 a wide-reaching organ- 
ization of the settlers of southeastern Wisconsin was formed, 
the object of which was the mutual protection of the set- 
tlers in their claims, and in fixing the boundary lines 
between them. All were trespassers in the eyes of the law, 
and it required wise counsel, as well as firm purpose and 
concerted action, to enforce fair dealing by those who were 
otherwise disposed. Gilbert Knapp was the president of 
this organization, and Marshall M. Strong was a member 
of the committee which drafted its constitution. It in- 
cluded a judicial committee, or court, before which all cases 
were heard and all disputes definitely and finally settled. 
It was government by the people without the sanction of 
written law, but with the force of a practically unanimous 
public opinion, and as a temporary expedient it worked well. 
Mr. Strong married Amanda Hawks of Troy, New York, 
on May 27, 1840, and brought her to his home in Wisconsin, 
where he was rapidly making a place and name for himself. 
Three children were born to them, one of whom — Robert — 
died in infancy. Before six years of their married life had 
passed, a devastating shadow fell across the path of Mr. 
Strong. On January 27, 1846, while he was at Madison 
attending a session of the territorial council, of which he was 
a member, his home in Racine was destroyed by fire and 
his entire family, consisting of wife and two children, 
perished in the flames. The children were Henry, aged 
four years and ten months, and Juliet, aged nine months. 



Marshall Mason Strong, Racine Pioneer 7 

The appalling tragedy shocked the community and the 
Territory as perhaps no similar occurrence had ever done, 
and the profound sympathy of all citizens went out to the 
stricken husband and father. 

The next day Albert G. Knight, a friend of Mr. Strong, 
undertook to convey to him at Madison the news of his 
bereavement and bring him home; there being no railroad 
he made the trip with his own horses and sleigh. On arrival 
at the capitol he found Mr. Strong addressing the Council. 
At the conclusion of his argument he was given the distress- 
ing news, when without a word he put aside his business, 
secured his wraps and effects, and accompanied Mr. Knight 
on the return trip, sitting with bowed head and speaking 
scarcely at all during the two full days that it consumed. 
Both houses of the legislature passed appropriate resolu- 
tions and adjourned. 1 

During the last dozen years I have talked with a number 
of people, all now dead, who lived in Racine in 1846 and 
were witnesses of the fire and its tragic ending. One of these 
was Mrs. Margaret Lewis, mother of ex-Alderrnan John 
H. Lewis, who died very recently. In 1846 she was a maid 
in the home of lawyer Edward G. Ryan, later chief justice 
of the supreme court of Wisconsin, who lived in the house 
at the northeast corner of Seventh and Chippewa streets, 
which is still standing and in fairly good condition. Marshall 
M. Strong was his next-door neighbor on the north, the 
buildings being not more than thirty feet apart. Mrs. 
Lewis, who at the time was sixteen years of age, witnessed 
all of the terrifying incidents connected with the burning of 
Mr. Strong's house and the death of his wife and children 
on that winter night, and they made a very deep impression 

1 The information contained in this paragraph was secured a few years ago from Mrs. 
Albert G. Knight, who is now dead. She stated that it was the supreme court where her 
husband found Mr. Strong engaged, but reference to contemporary Madison papers shows 
that it was the Council, to which Mr. Strong belonged. Mrs. Knight told me that her 
husband had a great admiration for Mr. Strong, and spoke of him often in terms of affec- 
tion and high praise. — Author. 



8 Eugene Walter Leach 

on her mind, the recollection of them being vivid until the 
day of her death in 1913. 

Bereft of his entire family at the age of thirty-three, 
Mr. Strong was deeply afflicted, and for a time bore the 
distressing burden silently and alone. The passing weeks, 
however, mitigated the poignancy of his sorrow, and he 
returned with something of his usual cheerfulness and vigor 
to his professional and political duties. The new and very 
important work connected with the deliberations of the 
first constitutional convention, of which he was a member, 
and into which, in the fall of 1846, he threw himself whole- 
heartedly, was no doubt a beneficent factor in the healing of 
his stricken life. 

On September 19, 1850, he married Emilie M. Ullmann 
of Racine, daughter of Isaac J. Ullmann, a banker. There 
were born of this union two sons and one daughter. Ullmann 
Strong was born June 30, 1851; was educated at Yale, 
where he graduated in 1873; practised law in Chicago until 
1900, when he retired, and now lives at Summit, New 
Jersey. Henry Strong was born September 22, 1853, and 
died October 23, 1912. He was engaged in the lumber 
business at Kansas City, Missouri. Fannie A. Strong was 
born April 17, 1860, and died February 24, 1911. Emilie 
Ullmann Strong, the wife and mother, survived her hus- 
band forty-seven years, and died April 19, 1911. Ullmann 
Strong is the only member of the family now living. His 
generous response to my request for information for the 
purposes of this sketch is hereby gratefully acknowledged. 

Mr. Strong was a consistent and constant friend of 
education during all of his life. He was one of the incor- 
porators of the Racine Seminary, with whose subsequent 
history I am not familiar. On April 5, 1842, he was elected, 
with Lyman K. Smith and Eldad Smith, father of Mrs. 
John G. Meachem, member of the first board of school 
commissioners of the town of Racine. This board, and its 



Marshall Mason Strong, Racine Pioneer 9 

successors until 1853, had entire charge of school manage- 
ment and the collection and disbursement of school funds, 
the sources of which were in the management and disposi- 
tion of the school section lands. In 1893 Col. John G. 
McMynn, in a letter to H. G. Winslow, then city superin- 
tendent of schools, paid a high compliment to Marshall 
M. Strong, A. C. Barry, and others for their capable and 
wise management of the public schools of Racine previous 
to 1852. 

Mr. Strong was one of the incorporators and a member 
of the first board of trustees of Racine College in 1852, and 
continued an enthusiastic supporter of the institution all 
of his life thereafter. He and Dr. Elias Smith were influen- 
tial in securing from Charles S. Wright and Isaac Taylor 
the gift of the original ten acres of land on which the college 
buildings are located. In 1853 he was a member of the fac- 
ulty as a lecturer on political science. In an historical 
sketch of Racine College by Horace Wheeler, A.M., an 
alumnus, a high tribute is paid to its Racine friends and 
patrons, a number of whom he listed, adding, "and Marshall 
M. Strong, Esq., who was not only a large contributor, 
but whose counsel and personal efforts down to the day of 
his death were of inestimable value." 

Mr. Strong was not only the first lawyer in Racine, but 
he tried and won the first lawsuit in Racine County, which 
grew out of a competitive squirrel hunt in which he was 
leader of one side and Norman Clark of the other. It had 
been agreed that all kinds of game should be hunted; a 
squirrel to count a certain number of points, a muskrat 
another, a deer's head 300, and a live wolf 1000; trophies to 
be obtained by fair means or foul. Two of the party heard 
of a deer hunter at Pleasant Prairie who had a good collec- 
tion of heads, and they stealthily set out for them and got 
them. Meanwhile Mr. Strong's party heard of a live wolf 
in Chicago. It was sent for, but while being brought to 



10 Eugene Walter Leach 

Racine it was killed by a Captain Smith of a party of drunk- 
en sailors at Willis's tavern, west of Kenosha on the 
Chicago stage road, the weapon used being a bottle of 
gin. In the meantime Mr. Strong went to Milwaukee and 
got a sleigh-load of muskrat noses, which out-counted 
everything. The squirrel hunt was broken up; Mr. Clark 
had ruined Schuyler Mattison's horse and had to pay 
$75 damages. Mr. Strong brought suit against Captain 
Smith for killing the wolf, and the jury, before Justice-of- 
the-Peace Mars, brought in a verdict of "guilty," assessing 
damages at six cents, Norman Clark being on the jury. 

Mr. Strong was the first city attorney for Racine, having 
been elected for the first city council in 1848. In 1856-57 
he was city railroad commissioner, whose duty it was to 
look after the city's interests, and to vote its $300,000 stock 
in the stockholders' meetings of the Racine and Mississippi 
Railroad. In 1859 the city had a bonded indebtedness of 
$400,000— railroad, harbor, plank-road, school, and bridge 
bonds — a burdensome load, on which even the interest 
remained unpaid, and there was serious talk of repudiation. 
Mr. Strong opposed this, and warned the people that they 
were "riding on a stolen railway; using a stolen harbor; 
traveling over stolen roads and bridges; and sending their 
children to stolen schools." The city narrowly escaped 
bankruptcy, but did not repudiate its debts. 

In the forties and fifties two-thirds of the people here- 
abouts were Democrats, and Mr. Strong was a Democrat in 
politics, though temperamentally an aristocrat. His 
political career may be said to have been limited to the 
decade between 1841 and 1851; at any rate he held no pub- 
lic office after the latter date. On the organization of the 
village of Racine in the spring of 1841, he was elected a 
member of the first board of trustees. It does not appear 
from the records of the meetings of that first board that 
the business before them was such as would tax very 



Marshall Mason Strong, Racine Pioneer 1 1 

severely the business or professional capacity of men of the 
quality of Mr. Strong, and it is surmised that he may have 
had some such feeling, for he never again appeared as a 
candidate for an elective village or city office. He was, 
however, chosen a member of the upper house — the terri- 
torial council — of the legislative assemblies of 1838-39 and 
1843-47 inclusive, and as member of the lower house in 
1849. Before the close of the session of 1838-39 he resigned, 
and Lorenzo Janes was appointed to serve his unexpired 
term. 

Although Mr. Strong maintained a patriotic and lively 
interest in all political movements during his lifetime, he 
was indifferent to the appeal of public office, except as it 
meant opportunity and power to promote the public good; 
this sounds trite, but is true nevertheless. Strife for his 
own political preferment was extremely distasteful to him, 
for he was above the small hypocrisies sometimes practised 
— often with success — in personal political contests, and his 
experience had bred in him early a detestation of those 
methods of courting success, and of the men who practised 
them. In a Fourth of July address in 1846 he gave utter- 
ance to sentiments betokening more than a tinge of cynicism 
also in his political views, when he said: "Are not the elec- 
tors all over the Union influenced more or less by personal 
or local considerations; by unfounded prejudice; by false- 
hood, asserted and reiterated with the pertinacity of truth; 
by political intrigue and management, until it has come to 
be regarded in the minds of many worthy men, almost a 
disgrace to be chosen to office? They seem to ask, in the 
language of the poet, 

How seldom, friend, a good great man inherits 

Honor or wealth with all his worth and pains! 

It seems like stories from the land of spirits, 
If any man obtain that which he merits, 
Or any merit that which he obtains. 

"It is certainly unfortunate that our system of govern- 
ment should in any manner offer a bounty for fraud, 



12 Eugene Walter Leach 

intrigue, and hypocrisy, and that that bounty should be 
some of its highest offices." 

In the course of an address before the Lawyers' Club of 
Racine County on May 7, 1901, Charles E. Dyer 2 gave an 
estimate and appreciation of Mr. Strong, from which I 
think it worth while to quote the following paragraphs: 

"As senior at the bar in age and residence, stood Mar- 
shall M. Strong. I wish you could have known him. He 
was an ideal lawyer, and none excelled him in the state of 
Wisconsin. He was tall, though somewhat stooping; 
slender, and as clear-cut as a model in marble. His head 
and face were as purely intellectual as any I ever saw. His 
great eyes shining out of his face looked you through, and 
told you that his mind was as clear and bright as a burnished 
scimitar. When he made manifest his intellectual power in 
argument or conversation, he made one think of the inscrip- 
tion on the old Spanish sword, — 'never draw me without 
reason — never sheathe me without honor.' 

"No matter what demonstration of opposing intellect 
he encountered, he was as cool and impassive as a statue. 
In the law and in every department of knowledge he was a 
philosopher. He was quiet, urbane, earnest, unimpas- 
sioned, and his logic was inexorable. I do not think I ever 
heard him laugh aloud, but his argument was so persuasive, 
and his smile and gesture so gentle and winning, that when 
once the listener yielded his premises, there was no escape 
from his conclusion. 

"Discomfiture was unknown to him. He never exhibited 
depression in defeat nor exultation in success — a true rule of 
conduct for every lawyer. Once I saw him in a great case, 
when Matthew H. Carpenter swept the courtroom with a 
tornado of eloquence. He sat unaffected, self-controlled, 
betraying not an emotion, not a fear — only a cheerful smile 

2 On the death of Mr. Strong, Mr. Dyer became the junior partner of Henry T. Fuller 
who had himself been junior partner in the firm of Strong and Fuller. — Author. 



Marshall Mason Strong, Racine Pioneer 13 

of derision. Then he arose to reply, as confident as if he 
were presenting an ex parte motion, and before he finished 
Carpenter had not a leg to stand on. 

"A natural logician, Mr. Strong stated his propositions 
in such manner that you had to beware lest they should 
lead you captive, although your relation to the case made 
it necessary to controvert them. There was no noise in 
his utterances — no oratory — not the slightest demonstra- 
tion for effect. He carried one along by processes of pure 
reasoning. Yet on suitable occasion he was eloquent. He 
was somewhat like Wendell Phillips, who held his audiences 
spellbound, yet never made a gesture. His arguments were 
in the nature of quiet conversations with the court — some- 
times refined and perhaps fallacious, generally invincible. 
Intellect reigned supreme, and he was as pure a man as ever 
looked upon the sunlight. When Timothy O. Howe, of the 
marble face, lay in his last sleep, Robert Collyer bending 
over him at the funeral exercises in Kenosha, taking no 
Bible text, waved his hand over the bier and said, 'This is 
clean dust.' So was Marshall M. Strong 'clean dust,' living 
or dead. 

'T can think of no higher tribute to character than that 
paid to Mr. Strong, long after his death, by the Supreme 
Court, in delivering its judgment in the case of Cornell vs. 
Barnes, reported in 26th Wisconsin. It was a suit for col- 
lection of a debt by foreclosure of mortgage security, and 
involved a considerable amount. The defense was usury, 
and if there was a usurious contract, it was made by Mr. 
Strong as the attorney of the mortgagee. In fact he had 
made the lean for his client and represented him in every 
stage of the transaction. The usury alleged connected 
itself with the breach of a secondary contract by Mr. Strong, 
if there was any breach, and this was the vital point. The 
lips of Mr. Strong were sealed in death, and our evidence 
to repel the charge was largely circumstantial. Said the 



14 Eugene Walter Leach 

Supreme Court, in its opinion written by Justice Byron 
Paine: 'The high character of Mr. Strong, who was well 
known to the people of this state and to the members of 
this court, seems also to speak for him when he is unable 
to speak for himself and repels the assertion that he would 
thus violate a plain agreement, as unfounded and im- 
probable.' " 

Mr. Charles H. Lee, a bright Racine lawyer and some- 
thing of a scholar and litterateur himself, who as a young 
man was a student in the office of Fuller and Dyer, knew Mr. 
Strong quite well during the years just preceding his 
death. He also became very familiar with Mr. Fuller's 
estimate of the man who for many years was his senior 
partner. Mr. Lee, a few years ago, wrote for me a brief 
appreciation of Mr. Strong, in which he said: "He had an 
exceedingly high conception of the duties and dignity of his 
chosen profession, was liberal and kindly to his juniors at 
the bar, and always ready to counsel and assist them. He 
disliked noise or bombast, and while no one in his day was 
more successful with juries, his arguments were always 
addressed to their reason, their common sense, their spirit of 
fairness, never to their passions or their prejudices." 

Mr. Lee told me also that Mr. Strong was a friend of 
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who always stopped at Racine to 
visit him when he came West. At the dedication of the 
memorial tablet erected in the high school for its alumni 
who lost their lives in the War of the Rebellion, Mr. Emer- 
son made an address. He lectured here also at another time 
at Titus Hall. Charles E. Dyer has written of his pleasure 
in meeting Mr. Emerson for a half-hour after this lecture, 
on invitation of Mr. Strong, of whom he wrote: "On another 
occasion he had Wendell Phillips as a guest; thus he was a 
patron of literature and a friend of humanity, as well as an 
expounder of the law. He was a man of fine literary tastes 
and accomplishments. During the Rebellion he wrote 



Marshall Mason Strong, Racine Pioneer 15 

letters to Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton on the conduct of 
the war. When John Brown was hanged he called a meet- 
ing on his own responsibility at the old court-house, and 
made a speech in defense and eulogy of the old hero." 

Mr. Strong's literary tastes led him naturally into news- 
paper work in the earlier years of his life in Racine, and he 
made two side ventures into that attractive field, though 
he never took it up as a vocation, or let it interfere seriously 
with his professional work as a lawyer. On February 14, 
1838, the first number of the first newspaper in Racine Coun- 
ty appeared, with the name of N. Delavan Wood as editor 
and the following as proprietors: Marshall M. Strong, 
Gilbert Knapp, John M. Myers, Lorenzo Janes, Stephen 
N. Ives, and Alfred Cary. The Argus was a four-page week- 
ly. The second number contained an editorial announce- 
ment that N. Delavan Wood was no longer connected 
with the paper, though carefully omitting details. The 
fact was that the former editor had absconded with all of 
the portable assets, and had been followed to Chicago by 
Marshall M. Strong, who recovered a portion of the loot. 
It is likely that it was on the Argus that Mr. Strong had 
his first experience as an editor, for the paper had but 
eight months of life, its last issue being dated October 6, 
1838, and only the proprietors' names appeared at the head 
of the paper after the first issue. 

The Racine Advocate was founded in 1842, with Thomas 
J. W T isner as editor. Mr. Wisner died August 12, 1843, and 
Mr. Strong became editor; he continued to direct its affairs 
until December, 1844. Charles E. Dyer, in 1879, said of 
the paper, "No better newspaper has ever been published 
in the county than the Advocate under the editorial charge 
of Marshall M. Strong." Mr. Strong's hatred of the shams 
and deceits practised by many for purposes of profit and 
preferment in business and politics is clearly revealed by 
the policy he adopted in excluding from the columns of the 



16 Eugene Walter Leach 

Advocate the quack medicine advertisements which were so 
prominent a feature of the newspapers of that day, and so 
remunerative a source of income for them. It brings into 
sharp relief, also, the fundamental idealism that actuated 
him, which a half-century or more later found national 
expression in the very real pure-food laws of the land. 

In January, 1846 the territorial legislature passed an 
act providing for submission to the people of the Territory 
at a special election, (1) the question of a change from terri- 
torial to state government; (2) providing for a census of 
the inhabitants of the territory; and (3) for electing dele- 
gates to a constitutional convention to be assembled at 
Madison the first Monday in October, 1846. The consider- 
ation of these propositions occupied almost the whole 
month of January, and Mr. Strong, who was a member of 
the upper house, took a prominent part in the debates. 
One proposal, in the discussion of which there were many 
sharp exchanges, was that negroes be permitted to vote for 
convention delegates, which was favored by Marshall M. 
Strong, and violently opposed by Moses M. Strong of 
Iowa County. The latter stated that at a recent election 
in his county, for delegate to Congress, the abolition candi- 
date did not get a single vote, and he thought it poor 
policy "to give the South any reason to suspect that Wis- 
consin was favorably disposed toward the abolition move- 
ment" — which is an interesting side-light on abolition 
sentiment — or the want of it — in Wisconsin in 1846. 

Marshall M. Strong, in reply, championed the cause of 
the negro in spirited argument, but to no effect. The 
legislature was strongly Democratic and anti-abolition, 
and the outcome of the matter was that negroes were not 
permitted to vote for delegates to the constitutional con- 
vention. Comparatively few northern Democrats, then or 
later, were outspoken in favor of the abolition of slavery, 
and Marshall M. Strong found in his own party little sup- 



Marshall Mason Strong, Racine Pioneer 17 

port of his legislative efforts to secure for the free negro in 
Wisconsin recognition of his civil and political rights as a 
man and a citizen. 

The convention met and organized on October 5, 1846, 
with Marshall M. Strong and Edward G. Ryan as two of the 
fourteen delegates from Racine County, which at the time 
had the largest population of any in the state. When the 
question of negro suffrage came up in the convention, 
E. G. Ryan of Racine and Moses M. Strong of Iowa County 
made violent speeches in opposition to it, and Marshall M. 
Strong, who in the legislature ten months before had cham- 
pioned it, declared that he "had changed his views on 
the subject and would vote against it," and that was about 
all that he had to say on the subject in the convention. 
When the matter came to a vote there, but thirteen were 
for it in a total of 124, and the people of the Territory con- 
firmed this action by a vote of nearly two to one when the 
question of negro suffrage was submitted to them on 
April 6, 1847. 

The convention was in the control of the progressive 
wing of the democracy, and Mr. Strong, being a conserva- 
tive Democrat, found himself in opposition to the majority 
on the three great issues before the body, which were finally 
settled after extended and spirited debate, and the conven- 
tion declared itself, (1) against all banks of issue; (2) for an 
elective judiciary; and (3) for full property rights for mar- 
ried women. 

In the debates on these proposals there was intense and 
continual antagonism between Mr. Strong, on the one 
hand, who opposed them, and his colleague Ryan and his 
namesake for Iowa County, on the other, who favored 
them. So indignant was the first, and so sure of his ground, 
that when the convention finally adopted them he re- 
signed his seat and went home to organize a campaign 
to defeat the constitution when it should be submitted to 



18 Eugene Walter Leach 

the people for ratification, a project in which he was entirely 
successful, for on April 6, 1847, it was rejected by a vote of 
20,233 to 14,119. 

Mr. Strong declined membership in the second constitu- 
tional convention, made necessary by the rejection of the 
work of the first. The constitution which it formulated, 
and which was ratified in 1848, is still in force, the oldest 
constitution of any state west of the Allegheny Mountains. 
Mr. Strong was elected to the first state legislature in 1849, 
and took a prominent part in the revision of the statutes of 
the state, after which he retired permanently from the 
political strife so necessarily connected with public life, 
which was uncongenial to his thoughtful, quiet, and domes- 
tic nature. 

Three recent publications of the State Historical Society 
— viz., The Movement for Statehood 1845-1846, The Conven- 
tion of 184-6, and The Struggle over Ratification 1846-1841 , 
Constitutional Series, edited by Milo M. Quaife — have made 
it possible to get intimate and accurate estimates of some of 
the "Fathers" of Wisconsin, that have previously been 
difficult to secure. They are just the books for any who may 
wish to make an exhaustive study of those movements and 
men. They furnish a wealth of material, also, in the con- 
temporary opinions of associates in the legislature and the 
conventions, and of newspaper editors and correspondents 
whose impressions and judgments were given frank and 
free expression. I think it worth while to make two or 
three quotations from these volumes which throw into bold 
relief the essential attributes of character that made Mar- 
shall M. Strong the real leader that he was. 

On the organization of the convention Mr. Strong was 
a candidate for its presidency, and received the second 
largest number of votes on the first three ballots. As to his 
fitness for that office we have the opinion of E. G. Ryan, 
his colleague from Racine County, who in convention 



Marshall Mason Strong, Racine Pioneer 19 

business had seldom been in agreement with him. Mr. 
Ryan contributed a series of articles to the Racine Advocate 
during the convention, under the pseudonym "Lobby," and 
in commenting on the resignation of Mr. Strong directly 
after that event, he said, among other things: "His resig- 
nation is deeply lamented by all with whom he has been 
in the habit of acting, and his presence in the hall is greatly 
missed by all. His whole course in the convention was 
marked by great ability; he was ever a ready, fluent, 
and practical debater; very courteous in his bearing to all, 
and frequently, when assailed, giving proofs by his calmness 
and self-possession, of eminent fitness as well in temper 
as in ability for his position. His circumstances would 
undoubtedly have rendered the presidency of the conven- 
tion a more desirable position to him ; his occasional presence 
in the chair fully warranted his claims upon it; and neither 
I nor many others here have now any doubt that had the 
usages of the party been observed, and a caucus nomi- 
nation made that nomination would have fallen upon 
him. The result was a far greater loss to the public than to 
him. Without any injustice to the present presiding officer, 
I feel well warranted in saying that, if Mr. Strong had been 
chosen the president, the convention would have adjourned 
weeks ago with a better constitution than they have now 
adopted." When in the midst of controversy a man steps 
aside to praise his adversary, he may be given credit for 
candor. 

In the campaign for ratification of the constitution of 
1846 Marshall M. Strong was generally recognized as leader 
of the opposition. He addressed a big rally of the antis 
at the Milwaukee courthouse on March 6, 1847, which 
was reported for the Madison Wisconsin Argus by its corre- 
spondent "John Barleycorn"; he said that when introduced 
to the meeting, Mr. Strong was "greeted with overwhelming 
cheers for several minutes. He spoke about half an hour 



20 Eugene Walter Leach 

in his usual calm, clear, and convincing manner. The style 
of his oratory is peculiar. Though there is nothing striking 
about it, yet no man can listen to him without feeling his 
soul strangely and powerfully stirred up — without feeling 
that a large and noble soul is communing with his soul at 
unwonted depths. How strange it seems, and yet how 
welcome in these days of shallow quackery and raving 
demagogism to listen to a true man! . . . All that I have 
seen of Strong has conspired to give me an exalted opinion of 
the man." This writer gave expression to the feeling of many 
who listened to Mr. Strong. His positions — and his argu- 
ments in support of them — were not always unassailable, 
though taken and maintained with such evident sincerity 
and great earnestness as to convince the open-minded and 
compel the respect of all. The Milwaukee Sentinel and 
Gazette, in reporting the above meeting, said that "Marshall 
M. Strong followed Mr. Kilbourn, and for five minutes after 
his name was announced and he appeared upon the stand, 
cheer upon cheer shook the building and woke up responsive 
echoes from without. Most cordial indeed was the recep- 
tion extended to Mr. Strong, and so he evidently felt it to 
be, for it stirred his blood as the trumpet call rouses up the 
warrior, and he spoke with a power and eloquence which 
told with wonderful effect upon his audience." 

Although Mr. Strong had the tastes and spirit of an 
aristocrat, there was no snobbery in him. He was a straight, 
a clear, and a clean thinker, with a fine scorn of anybody or 
anything that was crooked, or dubious, or unclean. It was 
an aristocracy of brains, and heart, and soul that claimed 
him, and to which he owned allegiance. In the social and 
civic organization and activities of the settlement, the vil- 
lage, and the city that was his home, he took the part of a 
man and a citizen. He kept store, as we have seen; he was 
a member of fire company, engine number one, at a time 
when the most effective fire-fighting apparatus known was 



Marshall Mason Strong, Racine Pioneer 21 

a hand-pump machine, and it was hard and often dangerous 
work when called out by an alarm; and in every other pos- 
sible way identified himself with the work, responsibilities, 
and other common interests of the community. 

The last ten or more years of Mr. Strong's life were 
devoted quite exclusively to the practise of his profession, 
in which he was preeminently successful. He was the 
recognized head of the bar of the first district, and had a 
large clientele. I have talked recently with a gentleman 
who, when a young man, knew Mr. Strong and heard him 
argue cases in court. He told me that it was Mr. Strong's 
settled policy never to take a case unless convinced that 
justice was with his client. 

The special attention of the reader is invited to the por- 
trait of Mr. Strong accompanying this sketch. It does not 
require an expert physiognomist to see delineated there the 
fine traits of character ascribed to him by those who knew 
him well and appraised him truly. Of Mr. Strong's religious 
faith or experience I have learned but little, except that he 
had no church relationship, though his second wife and all 
of her family — the Ullmanns — were members of the Episco- 
pal Church. Mr. Strong died March 9, 1864, and is buried 
beside his first wife and four of his children, in the family 
lot in Mound Cemetery, Racine. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



016 090 246 2 



LIBRARY OF CO 



016 090 ; 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



016 090 246 2 



